Mark Carney said on Monday that while American negotiators saw the French language in Canada as an “irritant … in Quebec, these are rights,” days after receiving widespread praise from political leaders for rejecting a US trade proposal that many perceived as weakening the country’s Francophone culture.
The prime minister’s remarks came hours after the US president, Donald Trump, showed little interest in retreating from the spat, posting on social media that Canada had been “ripping off the United States of America for years” and threatening a swath of new, economically devastating tariffs on cars and trucks.
Carney instructed his negotiators to walk away from trade talks last week. Tariffs on an array of Canadian products took effect over the weekend, affecting around 5% of Canada’s exports to the US, and Canada said it will retaliate in early September.
On Monday, Carney toured a shipyard with Quebec’s premier, telling attendees Canada “could not accept” a proposed trade deal that would have weakened French language protections after trade talks collapsed between the two countries last week, adding that his government “will not give what they have asked”.
The prime minister’s decision to abandon trade talks with the US spurred declarations from political leaders and pundits in Canada that the country is now fully locked into an economic war with its longtime ally. » | Leyland Cecco in Toronto | Monday, August 24, 2026
How lucky Canadians are! They are being led by a cultured gentleman with oodles of refinement, sophistication, intelligence, and class. Americans, by contrast, are being led by a philistine! — © Mark Alexander
ALSO READ:
From ‘Fortress North America’ to All-Out Trade War: How the U.S.-Canada Talks Collapsed: Detailed accounts of the final hours of the negotiations show that, while the United States offered Canada what it said was the best deal of any country, what Canada had to give up in exchange was seen as unthinkable. »
U.S. Tariffs Could Price Canadian Firms Out of U.S. and Threaten Thousands of Jobs: The 50 percent tariffs President Trump imposed on Canadian exports to the United States will make it impossible for many Canadian companies to continue to sell to the U.S. market, economists say. »
